Watts Up

Hello again!

This is another learning journal entry for my course, summarising my 4th week in foundation. This was from two weeks ago and have written it as if I was in that time frame (I don't have easy access to a computer so I'm trying my best!)

Monday 23rd of September 2013

Monday marked the start of the two week Design project.

The tutors talked through the design process and brief. Within that brief we had to choose an issue that we have to work within these two weeks and look at ways of solving this innovatively. 

I chose "Why don't people switch off the lights, phone chargers, etc ?" as I was interested in how this may affect the environment. We then started by forming brainstorms in groups, generating initial ideas/ solutions and collected some research material. It was also fresher's fayre on Monday and I collected some first hand research from there, like leaflets/ coasters on conserving energy and this energy saving plug. 

The next step would be to look at some further research on how wasting energy has some negative effects on the environment and think of a target audience.

Wednesday 25th of September 2013

We started the morning with more research and during the afternoon sessions we had to choose 2 workshops to help move our project forward- for me it was Photoshop and machine stitching.

The Photoshop session was quite beneficial for me as I could end up doing a poster campaign to make people aware of the different ways of how they could conserve energy. Presenting the scale and the location of a poster is also something I need to think about and we were given a template to show how it would appear on a billboard.

This was just a quick design I created within that session but next time if I were to work with Photoshop again I need to consider more on the layout and colour scheme when I have decided on a target audience as this would make it easier for who it is I am aiming at.

The machine stitching didn't turn out to be a success as I was unfamiliar with the sewing machine but it showcased a different way of drawing combining thread and fabric. If I was going to consider working with this technique, I would ask for assistance from a tutor just so that I can get to grips with how to handle the machine more easily.

Thursday 26th of September 2013

We had a whole day of printmaking on Thursday and used the technique of intaglio.

During the first stage of the printmaking session we all had to select some materials such as pieces of fabric, string, etc, and place this on a metal plate that was then compressed on the roller, so that the textures of it displayed on the plate like so:

Consequently, we applied oil based inks onto the plate, removed the excess with cloth/ newsprint and created some prints which displayed the textures.

Next in line was using a process called chine colle. This involved cutting sections from magazines, coloured paper and tissue paper (basically creating a collage), afterwards applying glue to it so that it faced upwards (this meant that the collage stuck to the piece of paper, creating a background with the inked textures).

I experimented with cutting out different shapes and also considering what colours combined well together. Unfortunately I forgot take photographs of my prints beacause we had to move quite fast. 

Overall I quite enjoyed the printmaking workshop and would definitely use this technique if it suited to a project I conduct at a later date.

Friday 27th of September 2013

Again I chose another two workshops, thinking about how I could use these to help push my project forward.

My first workshop was on typography, seeing how font, size and layout of text can engage an audience. There were a variety of materials on hand and I experimented with using stencils and the labelling gun.

I found this workshop enjoyable but could have speeded up my pace to generate more work if I had time. On the other hand, one strength was I considered the scale of the text to create an impact, along with the use of colour. At this stage producing an awareness campaign is something that I would most likely to consider and taking some elements that I have gathered and learnt from this typography workshop would benefit my project, also creating more experimental work based around this.

Subsequently the next workshop I chose was mono-printing and this involved choosing and tracing over an image, applying ink on the plate and drawing on top of that tracing to produce a print.

These were traced from my first-hand research and I thought some of the prints turned out well in the end. I could try and experiment with these prints and scan them in on Photoshop next week to see if this has an interesting effect on my work.

During the afternoon we were asked to produce a series of thumbnail sketches based on our ideas for the project, working on A2.  I wasn't particularly productive during that session and although what seemed like an easy task I found quite difficult.

To summarise the week I have produced some first inital ideas, gathered some research material whilst also gathering some possible ideas of experimenting from the different workshops. I have identified which problem I want to solve (energy wastage) but in order to move my project forward I need to make a clear choice on how I might resolve that issue innovatively using design and also consider a target audience. Some targets for next week would be to collect more research (other than first-hand) and perhaps produce some sketches.